Five in it for victory heading into final day in Sweden!

12 February 2011

The stage is set for a truly nail-biting finale to the 2011 World Rally Championship curtain-raiser, as Mikko Hirvonen, Mads Østberg, Petter Solberg, Jari-Matti Latvala and Sébastien Ogier all enter day three of Rally Sweden covered by 15.8 seconds...

Five drivers will enter the final day of the 2011 edition of Rally Sweden this weekend blanketed by barely 15 seconds following a thrillingly topsy-turvy conclusion to the action today (Saturday).

Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team star Mikko Hirvonen remains in control of proceedings, having extended his margin over unfancied M-Sport Stobart adversary Mads Østberg to a fraction over seven seconds, despite suffering a spin on SS12 just after the midway rest. However, just as the Norwegian lost time as the effective snow plough for his fellow competitors on day two, so the defending rally-winner fears he may be punished by having to clear a path for his rivals on Sunday morning.

“Maybe I don't have a chance, but you never know,” mused a phlegmatic Hirvonen. “All I can do is go flat-out. It's been so difficult today, because all those drivers running after us on the national rally are making the line in completely the wrong place, but they won't be there tomorrow so maybe we can do it. I will just push as hard as I can.”

“It's been absolutely very difficult today,” agreed Østberg, who at one point had a lead of almost 15 seconds over his fellow Fiesta driver. “I expected it to be a lot better on the second pass of the stages, but it was a lot worse with all the ruts that had formed. That made it so frustrating, but that's how it is. I just have to stay calm and not do anything stupid, drive and push again.”

The intrigue increases when it is considered that former World Rally Champion Petter Solberg, Hirvonen's factory Ford team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala and Citroën Total World Rally Team ace Sébastien Ogier – impressively, on only his second appearance in Sweden – are all similarly within 15.8 seconds of the leader, with the latter pair having made particular inroads.

“It was the plan to be third,” revealed Solberg, fastest on two forest stages on day two. “I was not so happy with the handling at one point today, but in the end it got better when we made some changes and now I am happy.”

Latvala's only concern was a high-speed spin two kilometres from the end of SS12, as he has inexorably whittled down his team-mate's advantage, whilst on an afternoon that completely reversed Ford's earlier dominance of the event, Citroën claimed all five stage wins – one for Solberg, one for Ogier and three for the WRC's 'record man' Sébastien Loeb, who nonetheless remains some way adrift of the victory-chasing quintet following his delays on Friday. Along the way on day two, the Frenchman had to overcome a puncture and a brush with a snow bank that filled his DS3's air filter with snow and resulted in a loss of engine power.

Former F1 World Rally Champion Kimi Raikkonen has fought his way grittily up to seventh in his Ice 1 Racing-run DS3, with the plucky Per-Gunnar Andersson slipping back to eighth after spending most of the afternoon without power steering in his Fiesta RS WRC.

Patrik Sandell remains ninth and the clear Production World Rally Championship (PWRC) pace-setter, although the home hero lost time with a disagreement with a snow bank on SS13, requiring co-driver Staffan Parmander to manually clear the radiator on the pair's Skoda Fabia – and a subsequent near-miss with the oncoming Loeb provided another scare. Matthew Wilson has risen to tenth following power steering woes the previous day.

Sunday's opening stage, Torntorp, will begin just before 8am local time, with the event set to conclude with the Power Stage, which will be broadcast live around the world on television and will award bonus points to the three quickest drivers.

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I think there is a chance Ogier will be in the fight for victory tomorrow as he is quite far down the order,time wise 15secs is not a lot.
Who knows, it's no harm having WRC upredictable-I sure hope it is like this more often so we can see privateers fighting for wins and podiums.